The mAnasatarangiNIkAra and others have spoken on this here: MT1803, N201803, 20151212 (mindmup map, img, base file here), RK16, H17,20151219, 2015BX, 201209. Also see notes in the “genetics” page.
The (more credible) AIT narrative of Bronze age events. For an account of the rapid radiation in Europe, Iran and Central Asia, see other pages.
Textual provenance
Spatio-temporal coordinates
Indo-Aryans initially resided in the area around/ beyond the Black Sea, and were familiar with cold and long dawns (as evidenced by some parts of the Vedic texts - long ashvina-shastra to be recited at dawn). This is supported by genetic studies such as - N15. Even in the ancient past, they were a composite people [MTTW16].
RV shows clear knowledge of specific geothermal phenomena in the Caspian region. Further, its astronomical references compared with those of the Yajurveda and the Vedāñga Jyotiṣa point to dates certainly certainly earlier to ~3500-3200 YBP and even before the earliest Sintashta chariots, perhaps closer to 5000 YBP than 4000 YBP. These dates, while well-known to Hindu scholars since Tilak, are routinely ignored by white indologists as fantasies of the Hindus despite early acknowledgment of the same in their midst by Jacobi. … as discussed earlier it does match with other features like:
- near lack of rice agriculture and dominance of barley; 2) the rarity of the sword and the gadā (which can be associated with Sintashta/Andronovo) as war weapons; 3) hardly any mention of the complex society with multiple service castes found in the Yajurveda brāhmaṇa-s and ritual. [MT17]
Economy and culture
we can paint some aspect of the lives of the ārya-s based on the RV: They were different from the later horse-centric pastoralists like the steppe Iranians (e.g. śaka-s) and Altaic peoples for whom the horse was primary and the cow marginal. In contrast, for the ārya-s the cow was central to their nutrition and economy and the horse played a central military role. While the ārya-s certainly rode horses, its military role in that period was apparently not so much as direct mount as much as for drawing the war-chariot. Accordingly, the chariot was an important symbol of power. This, expressed itself in the form of the chariot/horse races which were an important form of contest, entertainment and ritual. Further, unlike the later horse-centric steppe pastoralists the ārya-s did practice some agriculture even before they arrived in the Indian subcontinent and seemed to have focused on barley cultivation. Here, again cattle were clearly central; they drew the plow, concomitant with which seeding of the furrows took place. Thus, the economy of the ārya-s was necessarily a mixed one combining both cattle-rearing and agriculture. Other than horse with its special military role, goats and sheep were also reared with the latter supplying wool which is mentioned in the RV. However, notably there is no mention whatsoever of cotton. [MT17]
Indian entry : IVC + Aryas = ANI
Genetic, linguistic and textual evidence indicates that culturally Indo-Aryan people entered and mixed with “proto-Indian” people around the Indus Valley civilization, forming a hybrid people (aka Ancenstral North Indian - ANI). Later still, they mixed with Dravidian (ancestral south Indian - ASI) and Asiatic people in the south and east.
Timing
- “1st they say that between 1700-1500 BCE there is East Asian admixture in C As Steppe pops which is absent in Indian groups. 2nd they say that Steppe ancestry seen in BMAC first ~2100 BCE. So that gives us a rather narrow window of when the Arya-s reached the subcontinent.” [MT on 201803]
IVC merger
- IVC was in decline when the Arya-s arrived.
- The invasion likely happened in collaboration with a faction of IVC elites, some of whom were later incorporated in the highest echolons of Arya society.
Multiple waves
- “We suspect that similarly there were multiple waves of Indo-European invasions into India. Most of these were waves were Indo-Aryans or at best Iranians, though there might have additionally even been a kentum type non-Indo-Iranian wave – sort of a mirror image of the western branch of Indo-Aryans (Mittani superstrate) that appeared in West Asia [Footnote 2]. We discern several such waves based on Indo-Aryan literary tradition: 1) The pa~nchajana (who may have come in more than one wave); 2) the ikShvAku (these two are early waves); 3) the shalva-s; 4) the pANDava-s” [MT11]
- “The late RV sarayu and gomati were to the west. They were later moved east perhaps indeed with the movement of ikShavAkus” [TW].
- " As we have tentatively argued before there appears to have been an older layer involving a civil war within the kuru-pa~nchAla confederation in core AryAvarta. In this confrontation, the kuru-s might have destroyed the pa~nchAla-s, perhaps via the action of the feral bharadvAja brAhmaNa ashvatthAman. The larger canvas of these events appears to have included conflicts with another Indo-Aryan state of the salva-s who were initially defeated by the kuru-s and subsequently destroyed by the yadu-s under kR^iShNa devakIputra and his allies. Another group, the nAga-s, called by some as non-Aryan, were in reality most certainly culturally Arya. This group was also contending for power in this period against the yadu-s led by kR^iShNa. The pANDu-s coming from the Iranian border zone appear to have subsequently emerged as key players. Initially they allied with the yadu-s to gain territory from the nAga-s. This sparked off a long standing feud between the latter and the pANDu-s with some nAga groups allying themselves to the pANDu-s and other fiercely opposing them. Subsequently, the pANDu alliance destroyed the surviving kuru power in alliance with the remnants of the pa~nchAla-s and the yadu-s. Finally they placed themselves as rulers after completing the destruction of the nAga power. Their joint queen draupadI appear to symbolically represent the shrI or the wealth and power of the old pa~nchAla monarchs, which was now in the hands of the pANDu-s though the former had no successors…. This secondary wave along with others might be associated with the transformation of Vedic India into the early “classical” India wherein new religious systems, concepts and deities were superimposed upon the earlier shrauta system formalized in the kuru-pa~nchAla realm. It is conceivable that archaeologically they correspond to the famous Painted Grey Ware culture of northern India. Despite their huge cultural effect, their own direct political contribution was limited. There are few India dynasties that consistently claim origin from the pANDu-s." [MT]
- First wave
- " the study of the ethnogenesis of the Indians suggests that the main Indo-Aryan contribution came from the invasion of a population close to the Yamnaya of the early steppe Bronze age rather than the Sinthasta or its successors Andronovo culture which descended from the Yamnaya. This is also more consistent with the estimates for the dates of expansion of the “Indian” branch of the R1a1 Y-haplogroup which is associated with the invasion of India by the ārya-s." [MT]
Early Arya society
Painted Grey Ware culture
- Painted Grey Ware culture (PGW) is an Iron Age Indian culture of the western Gangetic plain and the Ghaggar-Hakra valley in the Indian subcontinent - 1500 to 700 BCE.
- cultivated rice, wheat, millet and barley, and domesticated cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses
- PGW pottery shows a remarkable degree of standardization
- There are a few stamp seals with geometric designs but no inscription, contrasting with both the prior Harappan seals and the subsequent Brahmi-inscribed seals
Cemetery H culture
- 1900 BC until about 1300 BC, Punjab
- cremation of human remains
- The bones were stored in painted pottery burial urns.
- completely different from the Indus civilization where bodies were buried in wooden coffins.
Gandhara grave culture
- Aka Swat culture.
- 1400 BCE and lasted until 800 BCE
- Shows IA admixture
varNa formation
Late Rg vedic hymns and the other veda-s show distinct varNa-s.
- The four major ones (brAhmaNa, kShatriya, vaiShya, shUdra) and other subcategories - rathakAra-s, niShAda-s and chaNDAla-s.
- iranian Avesta as well (athravan, rathestar, vastrya on one hand with huiti as 4th - a later term)
- Earlier, only the brAhmaNa, kShatriya, vaiShya varNa-s may have existed.
- Dumézil hypothesized that Proto-Indo-European society comprised three main groups corresponding to three distinct functions the function of sovereignty (which inturn comprised of formal and priestly categories), the military function and the function of productivity. [wiki]
- For notes on how a hierarchical structure might have yielded a competitive advantage, see here.
Contrast with other invasions
- Many later invasions (Greeks, Huns, Shakas, Turks) were relatively much smaller in comparison to this IA invasion.
- Islamic invasion of a pagan population (and one with a well established conservative social structure) is hardly comparable to the invasion of one pagan population over another (especially one with presumably lesser organizational/ conservative strengths). Further, one pagan population quite willingly accepts the cults and mores of another (eg: popularity of Isis cults in Europe).
- Unlike the European Christian invasion of North America and Australia, Arya invasion was not genocidal in nature -rather accommodative.
- Regarding later spread to South East Asia and NE India: Filipino to Tamil, there are a lot (going well beyond half the vocabulary) of sanskrit/ IA loan words and ideas. If you had an influx of scale similar to that of IA invasion of North India or Sinhala invasion of Lanka - you would see more drastic replacement after a millenium of settlement. As significant as Hindu migrations were to these other regions, they were not of similar scale.